Official has doubt about hand tally

By Keith Ervin
Seattle Times staff reporter

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As weary King County election workers faced the daunting prospect of having to recount 898,000 ballots by hand, the county's director of elections expressed doubt that a hand count would produce a more precise result than the machine recount finished yesterday.

"When you're talking about close to 900,000 pieces of paper, I think the machine count is going to be more accurate than a manual count," said Dean Logan, the elections director. "You introduce another human interface into the process. There's a margin there for errors to be made."

Democrats made it clear they will probably request a hand recount, either in selected counties or statewide, after Democrat Christine Gregoire finished the first statewide recount 42 votes behind Republican Dino Rossi.

If a hand recount is ordered in King County, election officials said yesterday they expect to rent a large room — likely at Boeing Field — where 70 tables could be set up for recounting.

In contrast to this week's machine recount, in which ballots were fed through optical scanners, next time the scanning would be done by human eyes. Workers would count ballots in teams of three: two to count and a third to record their results.

About 300 workers, including supervisors and security guards, would be involved in a hand count in King County, Logan said, adding that it could be completed Dec. 16 or 17.

To secure the ballots, King County officials have posted off-duty sheriff's deputies around the clock and sealed doors with numbered tape at the Sodo facility where the machine recount was conducted.

King County officials haven't determined how much a manual recount would cost, but it would be substantially more than the $125,000 to $150,000 cost of the just-completed machine recount. One hundred and thirty workers counted votes during the past week.

If one of the parties asks for a hand recount, it must deposit 25 cents a vote — about $700,000 for a statewide recount — and pay the full costs. If the recount changes the outcome, the money will be returned and the costs borne by the state.

"I'm not sure if you and I counted a stack of papers and said it was 500, if an hour later we wouldn't say it's 499 or 501. But that's the process that's prescribed by law," Logan said.
 
Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105